Many of our schools there were destroyed 2 days ago. In our Muchok high school, where we built a science lab and provided educational supplies, the second floor collapsed during a teachers’ meeting - killing 7 of our teachers and principles. The school in Kalabari, Lamjung - where we built a new roof, improved the school grounds, and were in the midst of building new classrooms - lost most of its buildings as they collapsed into the steep valley. The school in Kharibot, where we have created a child care center, provided furniture, and celebrated and danced twice a year with the local community, has been completely destroyed. 100% of the houses in some of our villages, where my groups visit regularly - are gone, totally gone, with all their stored food and and domestic animals buried under the rubbles. NOTHING is left of Kharibot, and Olang, and Apun - villages that hosted us so generously and graciously 4 weeks ago, showering us with gifts they can’t afford to give. Over 70% of the homes in the kalabari villages, who gave us shelter for 2 nights when we were caught in a rainstorm during our trek of October 2013, have been destroyed.

Some of the villagers died - we don’t know the full extent of the tragedy yet. But we do know that the entire population of survivors, without food or shelter, aggregated in our schoolyards and wept and slept there for 2 days, fearing further collapse during the aftershocks. Community leaders from Gorkha, who work closely with ELA and Ecopolitan, have called our ELA headquarters (in the district of Chitwan, within the flat Nepali lowlands that were not heavily affected), crying with desperation over the total loss of all their village's homes and all their meager possessions. Krishna Dhital and his wife Mira from Kharibot, who hosted and fed my group members just a month ago, have lost everything, just like their fellow villagers. Thakur Pandey, ELA Program Coordinator, has lost his Gorkha home that has been owned by his family of social workers for several generations. Now his son, Ananda Pandey, ELA’s Chairperson, was given the task of going to Gorkha to send detailed reports of the devastation, to provide encouragement to the villagers, and to help me plan the best course of action to save our mountain communities and protect their thousands of children from starvation, neglect, disease, and worse of all - child trafficking.

ELA is in a unique position to make a real difference in the lives of these villagers - since it is well known and trusted by the communities and has strong connections with the leaders and elders of each village, many of whom are teachers and principles in our schools. We are proven insiders, and the Nepali government supports our work in spirit, cooperating with us on several projects. Other organizations that may try to get into these remote districts - where they have never worked before - are not likely to succeed and their financial support might not be effectively utilized. ELA’s assistance can more readily reach those needing it most, with minimal waste of resources, thanks to our deep contact with these local communities and our track record of working with them for many years, even BEFORE the recent earthquake.

Many expeditions arrive in Nepal to help the victims of this disaster (mostly in Kathmandu), but most of them arrive too late to help the injured in remote villages, and in our mountain districts the disaster area is too wide-spread and too inaccessible. Almost all the money donated for disaster relief by large corporations will be spent in the Kathmandu valley - easily accessible and visible to the world. Much of the money will stay in the hands of corrupt public officials and corrupt local organization leaders that will pretend to support the Nepali people.